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Jordan’s parliament votes to cancel Israel-Jordan gas deal

 Israel just recently began pumping natural gas from its Leviathan gas field to the kingdom following a deal with the Jordanians.

By World Israel News Staff

The Jordanian parliament has voted in favor of a law to ban gas imports from Israel, reported AFP on Sunday.

According to the report, in order to become law, the motion needs to be sent for approval to the government, which in turn must send it back to the legislature for a formal vote.

“The majority has voted to send an urgent motion to the government requesting a law banning Israeli gas imports to Jordan,” parliamentary speaker Atef Tarawneh said, as cited by AFP.

On Friday, thousands of Jordanians took to the streets of Amman, the Jordanian capital, to demonstrate against the “shameful” $10 billion dollar gas deal signed between Jordan and Israel, Quds Press reported.

According to the news agency, some signs at the rally read: “The gas agreement is occupation,” “The enemy’s gas is occupation,” ” The people of Jordan are not for sale,” and “Down to all projects to suppress the Palestinian cause.”

In December, two electrical transformers in northern Jordan intended for the transport of the gas were torched, Jordan’s Petra national news agency reported.

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On January 1, Israel began pumping its first supply of natural gas to the kingdom via the Leviathan gas field, off the Israeli coast, under the terms of an agreement with Jordan.

The Leviathan is the largest natural gas field ever discovered off the coast of Israel, lying some 77 miles west of Haifa. It is estimated to have 22 trillion cubic feet of gas, enough to make the country a gas exporter for the first time in its history, which would bring billions of shekels into state coffers.

Last week, Israel began exporting natural gas to its southern neighbor Egypt as part of a deal signed last month.

According to reports, under the terms of the deal, for the next 15 years, Israel will supply natural gas to Egypt, which plans to liquefy it and export it to Europe.

Jordan and Egypt, two of the Arab states bordering Israel, have peace treaties with the Jewish State. The pact with the Egyptians was signed in 1979; the Jordanians signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.